In this video today we are going to be discussing some recent developments with respect to Thai Authorities taking certain new steps with respect to how so- called ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings are going to be regulated and are going to be dealt with here in the Kingdom.

For those who are unfamiliar, since the sort of advent, and later boom, of the so-called cryptocurrency movement, Initial Coin Offerings are akin to like initial offerings of something like stock in a company except for Initial Coin Offerings are offerings of new coins that then are basically brought out and, sold is the wrong word, but the thinking is they are brought out into wider use in the public so the crypto currency, online currency, coins system that sort of operates separate and apart, or in its own sort of ecosystem with respect to its own sort of economy; think Bitcoin, think Ethereum, Ripple etc., these are examples of cryptocurrencies generally. What is interesting here, and I'll get into a recent article I was reading, but what's interesting here, is this more pertains to certain developments that I read occurred with respect to Kodak and an ICO or Initial Coin Offering that Kodak undertook which had some rather dramatic impact on their stock price as well as a rather dramatic impact on that company's fortunes as of late. I won't get into the details of that specifically; I would urge folks that are watching this to maybe do a little research on that topic generally as that was a rather an interesting set of developments and it sort of ducktails into the segue here where we discussed a recent article in the Bangkok Post, published January 31st ,2018; the article title is “ICOs Must First Inform Public Via SET”. Quoting directly “SET listed companies planning to raise funds through an Initial Coin Offerings need to inform the boards about such deals before embarking on fundraising. Companies opting to raise funds through an ICO are required to inform the public through the SET’s electronic disclosure platform” said Santi Kiranan SET Senior Executive Vice President. Quoting further” ICOs provide an avenue for companies to raise funds quickly unencumbered by the hefty regulations and waiting periods of a traditional IPO”. The thing that I find rather interesting about cryptocurrencies in general, and the implications for the future, is not so much the more recent boom with respect to what I think of as a generalized cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin. It's more to do with the implications from a rather corporate standpoint especially with respect to the recent developments with respect to Kodak and their offering of a coin.

It seems like, and I can see many permutations if you will of this just general idea, it seems like there's going to be in the future perhaps a coin system for many different logistical networks, corporate networks, corporate alliances, etc. so whereas once, for example the airline industry, they were miles cards and you collected miles with respect to your Sky Miles, saved up enough miles and you could get a free ticket somewhere; perhaps this mechanism will be dealt with over the block chain in the future and will appear in the form of these coins that will be specifically sort of allocated within the, for lack of a better term, corporate ecosystem of a given company. I think that Kodak was sort of the tip of the spear with respect to this. I think it's very indicative of what possibly may come about in the future but what's interesting is Thailand and the authorities therein or herein I should say, have seemed to have seen the urgency with taking this issue seriously, do seem to be understanding rather quickly the fundamental changes that can result as a consequence of sort of broad-based embracing of this notion, of this notion of cryptocurrencies, of this notion of the block chain, of this notion of these coins, and they are taking measures to go ahead and at least provide some regulatory framework from the get go. So I think that this is a relatively positive sign. I think it's a positive sign for those who are interested in the crypto world and this video should not be viewed as an endorsement or non-endorsement for that matter, of cryptocurrencies or the cryptocurrency sort of universe if you will; it's more a video to sort of analyze the possible future ramifications of this phenomenon, and how the Thai authorities seem to be rather quickly coming up with at least a national regulatory framework for dealing with this, for dealing with this rather new development in both the financial as well as the business world.